Oppenheimer's Meredith Whitney Still Negative on Financials

July 30, 2008 5:28 PM EDT

Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney discussed issues in banking today in a interview with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo this afternoon.

Here are some highlights from the interview:

- Whitney said asset values on the books of many banks are "aspirational" and will need to come down.

- Whitney notes that the equity raised by various financial companies, like Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER), Citi (NYSE: C) and others, is just "plugging holes" in balance sheets, not funding growth.

- Whitney said recent moves by Merrill Lynch to sell CDO's at $0.22 on the dollar is a "move in the right direction", but it is "not out of the woods yet."

- Whitney sees additional capital raises from Citi (NYSE: C).

- Whitney questions why some financial companies are continuing to pay dividends, while raising dilutive capital. She expects Citi (NYSE: C) to cut its dividend further, maybe to somewhere in the $0.05 range like Wachovia (NYSE: WB).

- When Maria asked Meredith if Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) can survive the credit meltdown, Meredith paused for a time then said, "I don't know."

Link to Video

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Related Entities

• Citi
• Merrill Lynch
• Lehman Brothers
• Wachovia
• Maria Bartiromo
• Meredith Whitney

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